President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan speaks at Diyanet event: 'Hostility toward Sharia is hostility toward the religion itself'

President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the 1st Term Candidate Religious Officials Graduation Ceremony of the Presidency of the Diyanet Academy.

Highlights from Erdoğan's remarks are as follows:

"TO BE TURKISH ALSO MEANS TO BE MUSLIM"

I praise my Lord for bringing our hearts together in such a beautiful atmosphere and on the occasion of such a meaningful program. An 8-month process and courses continuing in 33 different locations. This is an expression of determination and resolve. We brought the Diyanet Academy, for which we began creating the legal infrastructure in 2012, to life in 2024. Our Diyanet community has attained a highly equipped structure in terms of professional training.

With these brothers and sisters starting their duties, our Diyanet community will become even stronger. I pray to my Lord for the success of each of our graduates in their places of duty. May the Almighty make their work easy. Likewise, I thank our instructors who trained our candidate religious officials in the best possible way.

Our ancestors did not just apply Islam to their own lives; they also served its spread through new conquests. Our ancestors, with cries of 'Allah, Allah,' carried peace, justice, security, trust, and brotherhood across 3 continents and 7 climates. We always see those who do not know their place, mocking or belittling the Hadith from time to time, but I know that you will teach them the necessary lesson. For nearly 1,000 years, Turks have protected Islam, and Islam has protected Turks. The truth you will encounter when you glance at history books is this: to be Turkish also means to be Muslim.

"A TURKISHNESS PROJECT THAT DOES NOT CARRY THE SPIRIT OF JIHAD IN ISLAM"

A two-track campaign is being carried out in certain anti-Turkey circles. The first of these is the definition of a 'Turk without Islam' that lumpen fascists are trying to bring to the agenda. Our 1,300-year history is being attempted to be ignored in this way. They want to destroy the historical, cultural, and human values that gave our nation its original identity. A Turkishness project that does not carry the spirit of jihad in Islam is an attempt to relegate the Turkish nation to a museum. The goal here is to spoil the essence of the nation and, if possible, to take it over.

"HOSTILITY TOWARD SHARIA IS HOSTILITY TOWARD THE RELIGION ITSELF"

The second is hostility toward Sharia. Hostility toward Sharia is hostility toward the religion itself. Whether to believe or not, whether to live it or not, is a matter of choice. Criticizing the commandments of the religion is a different matter. Furthermore, both discussions are being fueled by ignorant segments who are unaware of the Kalima-i Tawhid. Some bar associations in this country, tasked with defending the law, are uncomfortable with the flag on which the phrase of the Kalima-i Tawhid is written and can file criminal complaints.

The current chairman of the CHP can show the negligence of calling religious education for children a 'medieval mentality.' They are practically overwhelmed by anxiety. It is possible to extend such examples further. In every incident we experience, we witness this painful situation more and more. The policies of stripping away identity, which began with the single-party era and increased during periods of tutelage, have created a group whose minds and hearts have been colonized, who do not know how these lands were made a homeland, and who have no vision for Turkey.

They divided our people according to their clothing. They imprisoned modernity between the two doors of a wardrobe. They preferred the comfort of ignorance to the hardship of knowledge. They harbored a blind hostility toward people they did not know and did not deign to understand. The recklessness displayed toward Sharia in some circles in Turkey, even if they are few in number, is rooted in the disease of ignorance and lack of knowledge. I believe that, God willing, by joining hands and with your sincere efforts, we will tear apart and cast away this darkness of ignorance that poses a threat to our national fabric.

"A FRAUD IN THE GUISE OF A CLERIC..."

July 15 is the latest example of how much damage a fraud in the guise of a cleric can cause to our country. We cannot allow such a disaster to happen again. All of us, especially you, my brothers and sisters, are obligated to carry this trust to the future. Wherever you go, those lands and the children there are all entrusted to you. You will shape those children there like embroidery. We must raise such a generation that we do not fall into the situation that Palestine has fallen into.

News Source: 12punto